If you had ever asked me for restaurant recommendations before coming to Istanbul, you must be familiar with Kantin. And I sincerely hope you were there during the artichoke season. Or the ever-so-short snap pea season. Şemsa Denizsel, chef and owner of Kantin, works wonders in the kitchen. And as you’re reading this, she’s cooking up a storm in CIA’s kitchen in Greystone, Napa Valley – to be presented at the Worlds of Flavor, together with another Turkish chef I admire – Musa Dağdeviren, chef and owner of Çiya.

Now, I know that the bread recipe isn’t something you can do on a busy day, but if you’ve already got the bread (by the way, it stores very well in the freezer so you can keep one loaf for now and one for later) then Open Face Roasted Vegetable Sandwiches are an excellent quick lunch or dinner idea. If you want to keep the dishes to a minimum, line the baking pan with foil when you roast the veggies. To speed the slicing I used my food processor to slice everything. It took seconds. Seriously, so fast! And I just put the food processor in the dishwasher after so I didn’t have to deal with washing it.